"Richard Brodie" <richard@brodietech.com> wrote:
> Maybe there is something about religious beliefs, even if
> false, that help people live a happy life.
I doubt it. I've heard to many tales of terrible experiences with
religious instutitions to believe that they *INTEND* to make one happy.
I'm sure that sometimes it does happen, but as with "religious experiences"
(ala mysticism), I think that such things occur *despite* the organized
religion, not *becuase* of it.
And, of course, for the people who choose God over truth, I have nothing
but pity, and a little comment that they should pay attention to:
Maxim of Freethought: "He who cannot reason is defenseless; he who
fears to reason has a cowardly mind; he who will not reason is
willing to be deceived and will deceive all who listen to him."
(I disagree with the "all" in the last sentence, but nothing is perfect...)
And as to belief in God being "comforting", I don't think so. More than
anything, it causes irrationality. The theory simply does not adequatly
explain what we see around us. Then, when people are FORCED to realize
that "the universe is as indifferent to us as we are to it", they have to
convince themselves that it's all for some purpose which *THEY ARE NOT EVEN
CAPABLE OF UNDERSTANDING*. e.g., "God's doing it to test us"; or the ever
so harmful "God must be punishing us for something we did." These little
irrationalities add up after a while -- until the dedicated mono-theist is
boxed into a little cornor of the world in which THEY ARE INCAPABLE of
seeing that their theory of the existence of God simply doesn't work.
"A major function of fundamentalist religion is to bolster deeply
insecure and fearful people. This is done by justifying a way of
life with all of its defining prejudices. It thereby provides an
appropriate and legitimate outlet for one's anger. The authority
of an inerrant Bible that can be readily quoted to buttress this
point of view becomes an essential ingredient to such a life.
When that Bible is challenged, or relativized, the resulting
anger proves the point categorically."
Bishop John Shelby Spong, _Rescuing the Bible From Fundamentalism_
(San Fransisco: Harper Collins, 1991), p. 5.
ERiC